4255 AVDC Inside Claydon.Qxp

Middle Claydon Conservation Area Middle Claydon Conservation Area All Saints Church, Middle Claydon Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Introduction .......................................................................................... 1 Chapter 2 APPRAISAL 2.5 The Origins and Development of Middle Claydon ................................ 2 2.17 Landscape ............................................................................................. 6 2.21 Townscape Quality ................................................................................ 7 2.33 Identity Areas ........................................................................................ 9 2.34 Claydon House and Park ....................................................................... 9 2.54 Middle Claydon Village .........................................................................15 2.72 The Old Brickyard and Catherine Farm .................................................19 Chapter 3 DESIGNATION 3.1 The Conservation Area Map ..................................................................20 Chapter 4 ENHANCEMENT OPPORTUNITIES 4.2 Suggested Improvements ...................................................................... 20 Bibliography and Acknowledgements ..........................................................21 Conservation Area Map The drawings in this document are included as illustrative sketches only, to help in the understanding of local character. Designated by the Council 19th June 2002 following public consultation. Information contained in this report is correct at the time of compilation, January 2001 © Aylesbury Vale District Council 2002 Middle Claydon Conservation Area Middle Claydon Conservation Area Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Conservation Area status recognises that Middle Claydon is "an area of special architectural or historic interest, the character or appearance of which is desirable to preserve or enhance"1. 1.2 The designation of Middle Claydon as a Conservation Area will influence the way in which the Local Planning Authority deals and applies its planning policies to the area and will ensure that any alterations or extensions to buildings within or adjacent to the Conservation Area are constrained by the need to respect the special characteristics identified in this document, the Local Plan and Supplementary Planning Guidance. 1.3 Designating a Conservation Area does not remove or diminish other legislation that may apply within an area, including Listed Building protection, protection for Ancient Monuments and Tree Preservation Orders. It does however impose planning controls in addition to those that normally apply. For further information please refer to the District Council's advisory leaflet on 'Conservation Areas.' 1.4 The following report describes the criteria that have been used, and the judgements made, in defining the proposed Conservation Area boundaries within Middle Claydon. It provides an appraisal which identifies, describes and illustrates the features and characteristics of the village that justify it’s Conservation Area designation. 1.5 The following principles have also been applied in defining the boundary: • Wherever possible the boundary follows features on the ground that are clearly visible, for example walls, hedges, building frontages. This is to minimise confusion. • Where there are important buildings, the boundary includes their curtilage. This is due to the setting of a building being as important as the building itself, and also to ensure that the Conservation Area is not eroded if land is sold or sub-divided. • Where landscape features such as a row of trees or an important hedge defines a land boundary, then the Conservation Area status is assumed to apply to features on both sides of the boundary. It is not therefore necessary to define the width of a hedge or the span of a tree. 1 The Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 1 Middle Claydon Conservation Area Chapter 2 APPRAISAL 2.1 Middle Claydon and Claydon House are located in the Vale of Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, close to East Claydon, Steeple Claydon, and Botolph Claydon and approximately 6 miles south-east of Buckingham and 8 miles north-west of Aylesbury. 2.2 The house and village are situated within a largely agricultural landscape of arable farmland, meadows and woodland with small villages situated amongst and on top of the surrounding low clay hills. 2.3 The Conservation Area boundary encompasses approximately 100 hectares of the Claydon Estate and also includes the village of Middle Claydon, which is located approximately one quarter of a mile to the north of the house, Catherine Farm to the south-west and a disused brick yard to the east. 2.4 The grounds of Claydon House were registered grade II by English Heritage in 1987 and revised in 2000. The boundaries of the Conservation Area roughly follow those of the registered parkland running along the Botolph Claydon to Charndon road to the south of Claydon House and, to the north, follow the Steeple Claydon to Sandhill road incorporating the village of Middle Claydon. To the west of the house, the boundary follows the line of a lane linking the roads to the north and south and includes a small disused brickyard. To the east, the boundary follows a small natural brook that runs north to south along the bed of a shallow agricultural valley. The Origins and Development of Middle Claydon 2.5 The history of the ownership of the Manor of Middle Claydon, prior to the tenure of the Verney family, is complex. The Domesday Book records that in 1086 the manor, which was estimated at 10 hides, was held by a William Peveral. Through the succeeding decades the manor was held by several families until, in 1463, it came into the possession of Sir Ralph Verney. 2.6 On the death of Sir Ralph Verney, the Manor of Middle Claydon passed to his son John who, in turn, leased it to his kinsman Roger Gifford. Roger Gifford built a manor house on the present site of Claydon House and also erected the chancel of All Saints Church which is situated 50 metres to the south of the house. 2.7 The principal seat of the Verney family was at Pendley, near Ashridge in Hertfordshire. However, during the early 17th century this building was sold and Claydon House became the Verney family seat. 2.8 In 1752 Sir Ralph Verney succeeded to the title of 2nd Earl Verney and inherited Claydon House which was a late Tudor brick building constructed on a traditional H plan form. Successive generations of the Giffards and Verneys had altered and modernised the building but, nevertheless, it appeared old fashioned to classical 18th century tastes. Given the considerable wealth and political ambitions of Sir Ralph Verney, the Tudor building was not considered to be an adequate statement of his family's social status and fortune. Therefore Sir Ralph resolved to rebuild Claydon House in a manner to rival the great 18th century estates such as the nearby Temple-Grenvilles family seat at Stowe. 2 Middle Claydon Conservation Area 2.9 The Earl began the aggrandisement of his Middle Claydon estate with the construction of the Stable Court, which was completed in 1754 and is located to the east of the main house. The next major phase of work was the construction of a seven bay stone range to the west of the stable and the original Tudor house. Evidence, notably in the form of a mid-18th century design drawing of the west front, suggests that this range was originally conceived as a complete building, with a doorway, rather than a Venetian window, centrally positioned within the principal elevation. This range is the only element of the 2nd Earl's remodelling and extension of the main house to have survived. However, as works progressed, Earl Verney's ambitions for Claydon House burgeoned and in 1768, as the west range was nearing completion, work began on the construction of a substantial addition to the north that trebled the length of the existing building. The new addition consisted of a large central dome classical rotunda articulated externally with 6 giant The north front of Claydon House prior to engaged Corinthian columns, that linked the existing the 17th century rebuilding Reproduced with the permission of the National Trust building to a matching 7 bay range to the north. However, the compositional effect, although balanced, could not conceal the incremental development of the building. 2.10 Internally the central rotunda formed the main entrance to Claydon House. The northern range contained a vast ballroom, seven bays in length and two storeys high. The earlier, and now the only surviving range, to the south contained the staterooms. 2.11 The early phases of the rebuilding of Sir Thomas Robinson’s design for the west front of Claydon House. Claydon House were carried out under Reproduced with the permission of the National Trust the supervision of Luke Lightfoot, an extremely gifted carver who created the extraordinarily imaginative and flamboyant decorative internal woodwork for which Claydon House is renowned. However, Lightfoot was arguably a less accomplished architect and engineer and the building works at Claydon were beset with structural problems. In 1768, Sir Ralph Verney replaced Lightfoot with Sir Thomas Robinson, a Yorkshire Baronet and an amateur and rather conventional architect of the Burlington- Palladian school. Luke Lightfoot continued to work at Claydon House until he was dismissed in 1769 following accusations made by Sir Thomas Robinson that he had been stealing from

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